Visualforce JQuery get value of pageBlockTable cell

Question

I have a VF page with a pageblockTable which has buttons at the end I need to enable/disable based on the value of a cell in the table row. The last row in the table has text in it, but my script does not seem to pick it up.

What am I doing wrong? The Edit button in row 7 should be enabled because the memo cell has a value, but the alert returns no value. What do I need to change in the script code?

    j$(document).ready(function() {

    var empty = false;
    var mem = '';
    j$('.memo').each(function() {
        alert('in loop');
        mem = j$(this).val();
        if (mem == '') {
            alert(mem);
            j$('[id*=edit]').attr('disabled', 'true');
        } else {
            j$('[id*=edit]').removeAttr('disabled');
        }

        });
});


<apex:pageblockTable styleClass="cc_row" width="95%" rowClasses="odd,even" value="{!CCActivities}" var="cca">
<apex:inlineEditSupport showOnEdit="saveButton, cancelButton" hideOnEdit="editButton" event="ondblclick" 
                        changedStyleClass="myBoldClass" resetFunction="resetInlineEdit"/>
<apex:column styleclass="cc_col8" headerValue="Call Cycle Activity Name">
    <apex:outputLink styleClass="lineId" id="ccaId" value="{!URLFOR($Action.CallCycleActivity__c.View, cca.Id)}" target="_blank">{!cca.Name}</apex:outputLink>
</apex:column>
<apex:column styleclass="cc_col3" headerValue="Main Contact" value="{!cca.Main_Contact__c}"/>
<apex:column styleclass="cc_col8" headerValue="Account Name">
    <apex:outputLink value="{!URLFOR($Action.Account.View, cca.Account__r.Id)}" target="_blank">{!cca.Account__r.Name}</apex:outputLink>
</apex:column>
<apex:column styleclass="memo" headerValue="Instruction Memo" value="{!cca.Main_Contact__r.LastMemoContent__c}"/>
<apex:column styleclass="cc_col3" headerValue="Add/Edit Memo">
    <apex:commandButton value="Add"                                     action="/a08/e?RecordType=012O00000008w52&CF00NO0000001OYtC={!cca.Main_Contact__r.Name}&CF00NO0000001OYtC_lkid={!cca.Main_Contact__r.Id}&00NO0000001O4at=Information&saveURL=/apex/CallCycleListView?id={!cca.CallCycle__c}&retURL=/apex/CallCycleListView?id={!cca.CallCycle__c}&CF00NO0000001ZgWh={!cca.Name}&00NO0000001OYtH=CC%20Instruction" />-->
    <apex:commandButton value="Edit" disabled="true" id="edit"                                                      action="/a08/e?id={!cca.Main_Contact__r.Last_Memo__c}&saveURL=/apex/CallCycleListView?Id={!cca.CallCycle__c}&retURL=/apex/CallCycleListView?id={!cca.CallCycle__c}" />
</apex:column>                       

Answer 1

Use .text() instead of .val(). It is not an input it should be a div or td

For the edit button use the "ends with" selector and disabled should be disabled for a value not true:

j$('[id$=edit]').attr('disabled','disabled');

or try

j$('[id$=edit]').prop("disabled",true);

Example Using Account that works

<apex:page standardController="Account" cache="false">

    <apex:includeScript value="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.3/jquery.min.js"/>


<script>

    $(document).ready( function(){
        $('[id$=testbtn]').prop('disabled',true);
    });

</script>

<apex:form >

    <apex:commandButton id="testbtn" onclick="alert('opps'); return false;" value="Try Me" rerender=""/>


</apex:form>



</apex:page>

Answer 2

Just posting the full solution here, thanks to both @Eric and @Scott:

        (function() {
        var j$ = jQuery.noConflict();

        j$(document).ready(function() {
            j$('.memo').each(function() {
                var hasValue = (j$(this).text());
                alert(hasValue);
                if(!j$(this).text()){
                    j$(this).closest('tr').find('td[id$="add_edit"] input[id$="edit"]').prop('disabled', true);
                } else {
                    j$(this).closest('tr').find('td[id$="add_edit"] input[id$="edit"]').removeProp('disabled');
                }
            });
        });

    })() 

And the VF column looks like this (no disabled setting):

    <apex:column styleclass="add_edit" headerValue="Add/Edit Memo">
  <apex:commandButton value="Add" action="/a08/e?RecordType=012O00000008w52&CF00NO0000001OYtC={!cca.Main_Contact__r.Name}&CF00NO0000001OYtC_lkid={!cca.Main_Contact__r.Id}&00NO0000001O4at=Information&saveURL=/apex/CallCycleListView?id={!cca.CallCycle__c}&retURL=/apex/CallCycleListView?id={!cca.CallCycle__c}&CF00NO0000001ZgWh={!cca.Name}&00NO0000001OYtH=CC%20Instruction" />
  <apex:commandButton value="Edit" id="edit" action="/a08/e?id={!cca.Main_Contact__r.Last_Memo__c}&saveURL=/apex/CallCycleListView?Id={!cca.CallCycle__c}&retURL=/apex/CallCycleListView?id={!cca.CallCycle__c}" />
</apex:column>

Answer 3

You have a couple of things going on.

1. You have <apex:column styleclass="memo" ..., so use j$('[id$="memo"]') instead of j$('.memo') to query the apex:columns.

2. As @Eric said, use .text() instead of .val() as @Eric said since the apex:columns are tds and not inputs.

3. If you're using jQuery 1.6+, use .prop(...) instead of .attr(...).

4. When you're trying to toggle the disabled attribute of the Edit commandButtons, you need to find the commandButtons: you start at the memo column, so you need to go to the closest tr, then find the cc_col3 td, then find the edit input.

Code:

j$(document).ready(function() {
    j$('td[id$="memo"]').each(function() {
        alert('in loop');
        if(!j$(this).text()){
            j$(this).closest('tr').find('td[id$="cc_col3"] input[id$="edit"]').prop('disabled', true);
        } else {
            j$(this).closest('tr').find('td[id$="cc_col3"] input[id$="edit"]').prop('disabled', false);
        }
    });
});

or even simpler:

j$(document).ready(function() {
    j$('td[id$="memo"]').each(function() {
        var hasValue = (j$(this).text());
        j$(this).closest('tr').find('td[id$="cc_col3"] input[id$="edit"]').prop('disabled', !hasValue);
    });
});